Maryland Governor’s Paid Sick Leave Veto Calls Legislature’s Hand

As he had promised, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan vetoed what he referred to as the “deeply flawed, job-killing” paid sick leave bill passed by the General Assembly.

To override the Governor’s veto, 60% of each chamber must vote to do so. While each chamber had passed the bill with enough votes to override a veto, a change of heart by just one senator could doom the override effort. In the Senate, 29 votes are needed to override and 29 voted for the bill. In the House, 87 members voted for the bill; 85 are needed to override a veto.

An override vote cannot occur until the legislature convenes in January 2018. That leaves many months for the executive and legislature to try to work out a compromise. The Governor prefers his “Commonsense Paid Leave Law” which, according to the statement from the Governor’s office, would “provide benefits that hardworking Marylanders deserve without hurting the state’s economy and costing jobs.” As I explained in my earlier post, the Governor’s bill goes where no leave law has gone before because it allows employees to accrue leave and use that leave for any reason. It would apply to employers with at least fifty employees while the Assembly bill applies to employers with at least fifteen employees.

When state legislative sessions convened earlier this year, I had speculated that Maryland could very well become State Number Eight to enact a paid sick leave bill. Alas, it was not to be.